What Is Your Favorite or Easiest Camera Type to Repair

[Hunter_Compton]

I worked on a wide variety of cameras. Simple box cameras like Brownies I would consider to be the easiest, as the shutters are almost always working, and all they need are a cleaning of the lens and viewfinder and possibly cleaning up the exterior to be working well again. A No.2 Brownie or a Brownie Hawkeye can probably be done in 30-60 minutes.

I also have a great deal of respect for any camera design where it isn't necessary to peel off the leather on the body to access the working bits. The Argus C3 takes a hit for this in my books, because it is a great camera to work on otherwise.

 

[GregY]

a wooden field camera.... Deardorffs come back to life pretty quickly

 

[nosmok]

a wooden field camera.... Deardorffs come back to life pretty quickly

Definitely! I like room to work and things even my aging eyes can keep track of, and 4x5 and up fits those categories. Even metal LF technical cameras aren't so bad.

For building new-to-me cameras, I like the Graflex (especially Graflok) stuff, it's kind of like playing with Legos-- a back here, a bellows there, a focal-plane shutter from that one... and then at the end, you can always get a picture out of it!

 

[lxdude]

A meterless F2 is still my go-to 35mm still camera

I never liked the top-heavy feel of the F2 with metering head. I said that to a guy at the local camera store as I was trying out a very nice used F2 they had for sale. He smiled and swapped the head with the plain prism. I was immediately sold.

 

[flavio81]

I never liked the top-heavy feel of the F2 with metering head. I said that to a guy at the local camera store as I was trying out a very nice used F2 they had for sale. He smiled and swapped the head with the plain prism.

I can feel your Pentaxism from here.

I also feel the same about the F2, great machine internally, great viewfinder, but very un-ergonomic, badly balanced. The Canon F-1 is much better balanced, even though the meter isn't as refined as the later F2 meters.

Not to mention the Pentax LX. Pentaxes in general are highly ergonomic.

I was immediately sold.

You're a human being, slavery is plainly wrong!

 

[jaeae]

So far I have most experience with soviet cameras, and out of those my favorites are either FED or Zenit. Yes, the parts quality is all over the place, but I don't mind having to fiddle with them a bit. I think it's a thing of certain learned skill. Like my wife that does a lot of sewing, I hate trying it because the fabrics do not stay put like steel parts do, but she has the skill at the fingers. I would not mind changing all the slot screws to phillips headed ones, though!


Most horrid camera I have repaired was an Olympus OM-2SP and fixing the LCD readout. The amount of soldering and way too tiny parts

Actually, I have been trying to find some affordable SLR with AEL button, exposure memory lock, that would be easy to service, and not too modern - I do not want noisy motor winding nor autofocus-oriented small viewfinder. Maybe Pentax P30?

 

[Ian Grant]

I began with this one . . . .

Then this one.

It's a pre-Anniversay Speed Graphic that had been converted (from new) to be a wide angle camera, the Meyer rangefinders is set for a lens of around 90mm

The lens is an 8" approx Petzval, I have used the camera a with a 14" Dallmeyer Telephoto. I eventually replaced the bellows

Here the camera is fitted with a TT&H Cooke Series II 5¾" f4.5 triplet. I think it's actually marked as a Cooke-TP Luxor.

SLRs are on the list, this was last night . . . . . . . . . . .

Ian

 

[4season]

Maybe Pentax P30?

Not bad: Now that I've done a couple, I can turn those around fairly quickly. But need to remove adhesive stuck to the front of the pentaprism before it damages the silvering, and there's an rubber damper on the side of the mirror box which needs replacing. Need to unsolder a number of wires and remove mirror box in order to access, but it's not particularly difficult.

 

[flavio81]

Actually, I have been trying to find some affordable SLR with AEL button, exposure memory lock, that would be easy to service, and not too modern - I do not want noisy motor winding nor autofocus-oriented small viewfinder. Maybe Pentax P30?

Never attempt to remove the lens mount in the P30. It'll be a nightmare to put the electronic contact pins and aperture coupling lever back again.

 

[Tel]

I don't like working on electronics, so I prefer wood-frame view cameras and small format cameras that are all or mostly mechanical, like the F2. Lately I've been practicing working on Minolta 35s; wanted to have a go at making 35mm curtain shutters. (I've done a few Thornton-Pickard shutters and wanted to work on something more recent.)

 

[gone]

Any camera or lens that does not need to be worked on.

That's what I was thinking. Cameras like the Nikon N8008/8008s, nearly all the Nikkormats, Rolleicords, old folders, stuff like that.

It's hard to go wrong w/ any of the early electronic cameras either, and those are the cameras we thought would be door stops by now. I know what flavio81 means about wanting an AE-L, you absolutely need that to take advantage of the TTL metering.

Which is what led me to the $40 N8008s cameras w/ AE-L and a true spot meter. I've never seen one break. The back doors sometimes have issues, but not the cameras.

.

 

[flavio81]

It's hard to go wrong w/ any of the early electronic cameras either, and those are the cameras we thought would be door stops by now. I know what flavio81 means about wanting an AE-L, you absolutely need that to take advantage of the TTL metering.

Depends on the camera, sometimes on the brand itself. I have reasons to believe Pentax and Canon did achieve reliable electronics, Pentax from the ES II onwards (1973? 74?) and Canon from the AE-1 onwards (1976). Pentax was the first manufacturer to put electronics on a pro SLR, the Pentax 6x7 of 1969, so they had to make sure their electronic timing system was reliable. They had electronics gremlin problems on the Electro-Spotmatic (1971), yet they persisted with the ES and finally with the ES-II they learnt how to do reliable electronics. Canon was already a successful electronic calculator producer before even the 70s started, so they already had the expertise.

Those brands have many manual focus electronic cameras where the failures are often due to mechanical or electrical issues, the electronics themselves being pretty durable.

Yet i would question the ability of Nikon to make their electronics durable and reliable...

 

[dxqcanada]

Easy

 

[Sirius Glass]

All mechanical cameras with a battery only used for the light meter.

 

[jimmelcher]

My best repair yet is the waist level viewfinder I had to duck tape to an RB67 Pro-S. The camera was free, if I could fix it myself!

Otherwise, I have trouble loosing small parts during disassembly….

 

[ic-racer]

One idea I had with this thread was to get an idea of cameras that were "repairable."

I did find this list below. I is not a list I made on my own it is from this site (https://mycamerahobby.com/) and it is the list of cameras that they repair:

Nikon FE
Nikon FE2
Nikon FG
Nikon FG-20
Nikon FM
Nikon FM2
Nikkormat (Series)
Nikon EM

Minolta SR-T (Series)
Minolta SR-T 100
Minolta SR-T 101
Minolta SR-T 102
Minolta SR-T 200
Minolta SR-T 201
Minolta SR-T 202
Minolta SR-T Super
Minolta SR-T MC-II
Minolta SR-T SC-II
Hi-Matic Series (1962-82)
Minolta Rangefinders (1960-1985)
Minolta XG-1
Minolta XG-7
Minolta XG-SE
Minolta XG-9
Minolta XG-A
Minolta XG-M
Minolta X-370
Minolta X-370n
Minolta X-570
Minolta X-700
Minolta X7A

Olympus OM-1
Olympus OM-1MD
Olympus OM-1N
Olympus OM-2
Olympus OM-2N
Olympus OM-10
Olympus Rangefinders (1960-1985)
Olympus OM-G

Pentax H, H2, H3
Pentax Spotmatic (Series)
Pentax Spotmatic
Pentax Spotmatic F
Pentax Spotmatic SP
Pentax Spotmatic SPII
Pentax SP500
Pentax SP1000
Pentax K1000
Pentax K1000SE
Pentax KM
Pentax KX
Pentax ME
Pentax ME Super
Pentax MG
Pentax MV
Pentax MX
Pentax Program Plus
Pentax Super Program

Konica Autoreflex A
Konica Autoreflex A3
Konica Autoreflex T
Konica Autoreflex T3

 

[blee1996]

I like Synchro Compur and Compur Rapid shutters. Once you get to know them, you can service them in a thousand different cameras in Medium Format or Large Format.

 

[Boomlight]

So far I've found that overall, FSU cameras are easier to work on because they all stem from a common ancestor, the Fed 1, and the knowledge can easily be transferred from that to a later camera, all the way through the Zenit 12.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Any camera that I can take to Samy's, send to Hasseblad or KEH for repair work.